Eenie Meenie My Knee Ow

It’s been a while since I updated you all on the status of my sore knees (I wait, as I hear the exhalation of air from  thousands of readers who’ve been holding their breath)…

I hurt my knees a couple of weeks after I started walking/jogging.  I am such a cliche.  Well, the pain was considerable at times, but (since it was the same type of pain as my recurring "university basketball knee injury" trouble) I knew it would eventually get better.  After two weeks of not really getting better, I decided I should see a doctor, so I went to a night clinic.  It was a fairly fast procedure, the night clinic, as I was in and out in about an hour and a half.
The doctor confirmed my expectations that all that was needed to heal me was time.  However, in her examination of my knees (what with the pulling and the gyrating and the flavin flave), she made them much much more painful.  I hobbled home and began my weeklong campaign of medicating myself with Advil (I usually don’t take pain medication, but this pain was an exception).  The Advil worked at hiding the pain, but my knees still felt pretty weak and tender.
That was almost two weeks ago.  By this past weekend, my knees are/were at about 90%.  The pain is gone, the Advil is gone, and only the occasional twinge of the slightest pain is experienced.

As the doctor was examining me, she was manipulating my legs in all manner of directions and noticed an odd cracking sound at in my hip region.  She didn’t like the sound of it and suggested that maybe jogging wouldn’t be the best approach for me in my quest to get healthier.

So, I’m not going to be running for a while.  I’ll begin a walking (and perhaps bicycling) regimine in about a week’s time, and build myself up from there.

I Am An Empeg

You are .mpg You live life like it was a movie. Constantly in motion, you bring pleasure to many, but are often hidden away.
Which File Extension are You?

Apprentiac

As I was watching The Apprentice last night…was it me, or did  pontiac there seem to solstice be an abundance of in-show advertising pontiac for a particular product. 
This, of course, is normal pontiac for The Apprensolstice but last night was excessively so.  The more I watched the hour, the cheaper pontiac I felt.  Of course, it didn’t help that solstice every second ad during the commercial breaks (an ironic phrase seeing how there actually is no ‘break’ between since the entire show has turned become all about the product anyway) was pontiac for Pontiac as well.

Too much.  pontiac

The Mow My Lawn Commitee

I see in this cbc report that Charlottetown City Councillor Mitchell Tweel is to receive his $16,000 councillor "salary" despite not being on any committees (because he was removed from the committees he was on).  Apparently, councillors are expected to sit on committees in order to receive their annual stipend.

Therefore, I propose the Mow My Lawn Committee, which Councillor Tweel can be let in charge of.  I realise that Mitchell does not represent my district.  And I realise that, perhaps of all the councillors, Mitchell is the one who is most adamant about doing good for his district, even if it’s detrimental to other districts.  Because of this, i think it is unlikely that he gives a shit about my lawn, but I think he’d go a long way to earning the share of his salary that I paid out to him, if he would come to my house and mow my lawn.  Once a year, in August.

So, how about it Mitch?  I’ll supply the gasoline and the push-mower, you supply the validation of your councillorship.

I Am Robot, Hear Me Sing

OMG!!!  Could you believe it when Paula said something negative about one of the contestants’ performance?  I was like SHUT UP!  Tammy, what are you wearing to school tomorrow?  Don’t wear your pink Hello Kitty because I’m wearing mine, kay?  And Anthony the Russian likes you.

Sorry.
I was just trying to get into the mindset of a 13 year old MSN Messenger girl because:
a) I go undercover on chatlines trying to trick perverts into  thinking I’m  13 and available, just part of the sting.
b) I want to try to understand the mentality that keeps voting for Anthony the ArMuEsRsIiCaAnN to stay in American Idol.
c) It just really turns me on.

Here’s my oh-so-important opinion about last night’s performances.  Ignore as you see fit:
The order in which I remember them:

Nadia:  She wears a red short short tina turner "I’m Still Sexy, Dammit!" dress, and it looks great.  She looks great, with legs that don’t quit.  Too bad her song was so dreadfully boring.  It was sung well (I thought) but there was just something lacking.  Nadia is in danger of Bottom Three tonight.  Oh, and she’s gotta be careful of those mouth contortions too.  Sure, sure, emote all you want, and the tina turner scowl face can look good if employed for just a sec, but when tina turner turns into the Rober DeNiro "I’m holding a pistol at your head, and I’m angry, and I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you" look…well, then you got problems.

Bo: I’m not a fan of Bo, even though, apparently, the rest of the world is.  His rendition of Free Bird was not very good in my opinion.  I’m not sure if it’s the song, or his version, but it seemed to consist of only 6 notes, sung in random order, over and over and all emitted with a "rock" grrrr through clenched rock balls.  Bo has lost some of his early favourite status, I’d say.

Scott:  I agree with Simon that many of Scott’s notes were not the right ones.  But, he sang them with heart and soul and conviction, and when you do that, well that cancels a lot of the mistakes.  I thought this was Scott’s best performance so far, and he even seems to be letting that Psycho Killer persona drop a little bit.  Heck, he was even smiling last night.  I think of all the contestants, Scott is the one who can best explore the emotion in a song.

Anwar:  Technically the best singer in the competition?  Technically the most consistently under-performing contestant.  Oh Amway, I’ve given up on you.  You have yet to show us the voice and emotion and joy that lies somewhere within you.  You are a singing robot, coded to sing the correct notes.  If it’s not too late (that is, if you don’t get booted off tonight, which is a real possibility) you need to become a human boy and discover your beating, blood-pumping heart.  If you make it past tonight, then no more do I want to hear: "the song I’m singing tonight is 1000100101001000110001111001010011001010001."

Anthony: Blech.  Blonde hair, blue eyes, good looking.  You remind me of a younger me.  Blech.  At least he performed the best I’ve seen him yet.  And that was still the worst of the bunch.  Anthony’s biggest problem is a weak voice.  In a singing competition, that’s a pretty serious problem.  But seeing as this is a popularity contest, keep on trucking, A-Fed.  I’ve already wasted more words on you than I think you deserve, but here’s a couple more: You shouldn’t be in this competition.

Carrie:  Guess what, world!  Carrie Rocks!!  Unfortunately, she doesn’t rock very well.  If you can, look at a replay of her performance last night.  She was most definitely there in body, but look behind the eyes, and she was a million miles away.  She also sings like a robot, if you ask me.  But a root that has had its emotion chip installed a thousand years ago.  That robot, you see, has long ago given up the quest to actually feel, think, emote like a hu-man.  All it can do is be almost hu-man.  Carrie is almost hu-man.

Vonzell: Oh Vonzell, I may have misjudged you.  I’ve called you on the lacking emotion in song earlier, but I think you must have found a couple of bags of Constantine’s Extra Emotion Elixir ™, because the last two weeks, you’ve brought your quality way up.  Last night, I thought she was the best of the bunch.  Let’s hear it for the girl!

Constantine:  Okay, Constantine was obviously rope-a-doping the competition in the early rounds.  Last three weeks. though, he’s been dynamite.  Last night’s "Bohemian Rhapsody" was a risky choice (I thought. Always dangerous to tackle an iconic song like that.  Just ask Simon about Free Bird.) but he did a great job with it.  I may even be succumbing to his smoldering eyes and pouty mouth.

Bottom Three tonight:
Anwar, Nadia, Carrie

Leaving:
Nadia

Phil, Such An Elimination Tease!

My very good friend, CBC Mainstreet host and Sketch22 compatriot, Mort Rainnie, turned me on to this funny article about last night’s The Amazing Race.

Mort found it funny.  I found it funny.  If you are watching this round of TAR, you will most likely find it funny.

Three Wins

It’s not often that the people/teams that I cheer for in any sport win.  Sunday it was victory, victory, victory.  All in sports that non-sports fans would probably find incredibly boring.

First up was Men’s World Curling.  Canada won gold and won it fairly decisively.  I actually stoppes watching this game after about 6 ends, when it was clear they would win.  The really interesting game for Canada came during Saturday’s semi-final against Germany.  Right down to the second last rock of the game.  I enjoy watching curling.  The 4-Rock rule has been great for increasing offense and increasing viewing interest.

Then I switched over to NASCAR.  I always cheer for Jeff Gordon.  Yesterday he won, after coming back from 3 laps down.  I have yet to sit through an entire NASCAR race.  Too many laps that take too much time out of a day.  Usually I’ll watch a bit at the first, check in periodically over the next three hours, then try to tune in the final hour or so.  That’s what I did yesterday.

I ended the sports-day marathon with The Masters, watching Tiger Woods win his 4th green jacket.  It was a pretty exciting final round.  Chris DeMarco just wouldn’t give up, and kept pressure on Tiger who bogeyed his final two regular round holes, forcing a playoff.  Tiger won that.  He’s a pretty intense guy, that Tiger.  I doubt I’d like to hang out with him for any length of time, but he’s a pretty exciting golfer to be a fan of.

Also watched on Sunday:  Arrested Development, which continues to make me laugh out loud several times an episode.  And Deadwood, which I am enjoying more and more each week.

The Cruellest Month

I thought it was supposed to be April showers bringing May flowers, not April heavy snowfall warnings…
My mind has moved on from the concept of snow.  I’m not going ot like this.

Wha’ ‘Appened?

With my basic Typepad subscription, I get 1gig of allotted bandwidth per month.  Usually, my usage per month hovers in the 50-75% range, so no problem.
Thursday I was at about 16% with a projected usage of 82%.  Friday I check, and all of a sudden my actual current usage is 2.2 gigs (200+%) and with still 3 weeks left, a projected usage of 7gigs for the month.  What happened?  I did post a 17MB file link on thursday (I’ve since disabled the link), but it doesn’t look like that many checked it out.  I can’t see any indication of nefarious visiting to the site.
So, what happened?  Maybe it’s just a glitch in the Typepad figuring?  Perhaps after the weekend it’ll get rectified.

Friday Evening With A Beer And Music

Time for another listing of the music I hear.  Hear then (clever, no?) are the next ten songs that shuffle through my iTunes:

Let It Be – The Replacements:  I was never a big fan of The Replacements, and this song makes me wonder why.  I guess I only had so much room in my heart for alternative, cool bands that made music in the early ’80’s.
Love Rears Its Ugly Head – Living Colour: Even though they were from New York, they still knew the right way to spell colour.  How rare was a black band playing good medium to hard rock in the 80’s?  Can you name another?  Vernon Reid played a mean guitar, Corey Glover sang a mean song.  This funky song is from their very good album Time’s Up.
Rattled – The Travelling Wilburys:  Okay, so it’s a pretty innocuous song, but I just can’t seem to delete it from my collection.  I loved the idea of the Wilburys and some of their songs were pretty good, in a fun way.  This is pretty standard rock.
Death of an Interior Decorator – Death Cab for Cutie:  I’m not digging this song very much.  Don’t know much about Death Cab for Cutie, although I do know I do like a couple of the other songs from the album Transatlanticism.  Not so much this one, though.  It just kind of moves along
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles:  Well, a good half song, kind of a novelty.  Paul’s vocals sound good, but it segues into With A Little Help From My Friends, which doesn’t do much for me.
Just As I Am – Willie Nelson: a little piano/guitar instrumental ditty that just kind of builds up to an inevitable conclusion.  It was just there, then it was done.
So Young – Ron Sexsmith:  I can always count on Ron Sexsmith to elevate the quality of any playlist.  This, from Other Songs, is typical Ron Sexsmith: subdued instrumentation, subdued but heartfelt singing.  Why isn’t this guy famous?
Alabama Waltz – Hank Williams: a crackly old Hank Williams song, just him and his guitar.  The song sounds like it was recorded a thousand years ago, Hank Willams sounds like he’s had a thousand years of trouble behind his voice.
Brian Song – Monty Python:  The theme to Python’s The Life of Brian, very Bond Theme-ish.  Not too remarkable.
Turkish March (Mozart):  This ten song random list ends with a lovely piece of classical piano.

Well, that’s ten songs, and a not very impressive selection, I must say.  Oh well, dem’s the risks ya take when ya live on da edge, like I do.
Okay, one last song:  This will vindicate the list, surely:
Reeperbahn – Tom Waits:  Seriously, does he gargle with razor blades?  A great song from the best worst singer out there.